The young gun sat on the sidelines, his pistol holstered, never getting a chance to fire an overtime shot.
Patrick Mahomes, the presumptive NFL MVP, could only watch as Tom Brady diced up the Kansas City Chiefs' defense in overtime of the New England Patriots' 37-31 AFC Championship Game victory.
After Mahomes engineered a stirring comeback, guiding the Chiefs to a last-second, game-tying field goal, K.C. never saw the ball again.
The coin toss gods bequeathed the Patriots the ball to open overtime and Brady never gave his counterpart a chance to take the field. The G.O.A.T. tortured a gassed Chiefs defense with a bevy of throws over the middle, and multiple times deftly maneuvered his body away from potential game-changing sacks.
The Kansas City defense had several chances to get the Pats off the field in overtime, forcing three separate third-and-10 plays. Each time, Brady solved the riddle. On the first third-and-10, he hit Julian Edelman over the middle for 20 yards. Two incompletions later, Brady again found Edelman for a 15-yard gain over the middle. And again, on a third-and-10 from the 30-yard-line, Brady tossed a beautiful sideline strike to tight end Rob Gronkowski for 15 yards. Three Rex Burkhead runs later, touchdown Patriots. Game. Set. Match. Patriots to their third straight Super Bowl.
After a slogging first half in which Mahomes was kept under wraps, tossing for just 65 yards while taking three sacks for 43 yards, the first-year starter got loose in the final two quarters. In the fourth quarter alone, Mahomes led three touchdown drives, the final two giving the Chiefs the lead. Each time, Brady and the Patriots responded.
Mahomes wielded his enchantments on the final possession of the fourth quarter, getting the ball into field-goal range in just 31 seconds with an array of marvelous tosses.
The magical season, however, ended with the young quarterback standing on the sideline watching an ageless Brady torch his defense, never getting a chance to respond in kind.
